Bundle up, forecasters warn, as Arctic blast hits eastern U.S.

By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN

Updated 10:22 AM ET, Sat January 26, 2013

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Photos:Photos: Blast of Arctic air

Blast of Arctic air – A pedestrian bundled up against the cold walks through the streets of Manhattan on Friday, January 24, in New York City. Polar air settled in over the northeastern U.S. Wednesday, with temperatures in the teens and 20s. Forecasters warned that "bitterly cold conditions" were expected across much of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Mideast through this weekend.

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Photos:Photos: Blast of Arctic air

Blast of Arctic air – A surfer store with guys in swimwear seems an especially cruel sight for these bundled-up New Yorkers on Tuesday, January 22, as frigid temps hit the region.

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Blast of Arctic air – A lone pedestrian braves the winter chill on a Manhattan street on Thursday, January 24.

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Blast of Arctic air – Much of the Northeast is experiencing colder than usual temperatures, but the weather doesn't deter this woman on Wednesday, January 23, in New York.

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Blast of Arctic air – Ice covers firefighter Michael De Jesus while he mans a water cannon at the scene of a warehouse fire in Chicago on January 24.

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Blast of Arctic air – No, it's not a scene from the latest remake of "Anna Karenina," just a woman trying to ward off the cold in New York on January 22.

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Blast of Arctic air – A man keeps bundled up as he waits to cross the street in New York on January 23.

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Blast of Arctic air – A woman pulls on her gloves on January 23 in New York.

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Blast of Arctic air – Firefighters battle a warehouse fire in Chicago on January 24.

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Blast of Arctic air – A woman hails a taxi on Lexington Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side on January 24.

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Blast of Arctic air – A woman keeps covered up as steam rises from the street on January 23 in New York.

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Blast of Arctic air – The U.S. Capitol in Washington is blanketed with snow on January 24. The same brutal Arctic cold front that's delivered subzero temperatures across the upper Midwest and Northeast is forecast to bring ice and freezing rain to the South and Mid-Atlantic states.

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Photos:Photos: Blast of Arctic air

Blast of Arctic air – A man walks past a steam vent on Madison Avenue in Manhattan in the early morning of January 24.

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Photos:Photos: Blast of Arctic air

Blast of Arctic air – A pedestrian bundled up against the cold walks along a street in Manhattan on January 24.

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Story highlights

Winter weather advisories are in effect for parts of the Carolinas and Virginia

Some 100 flights are canceled out of that city's international airport

Aiman Youssef can't catch a break with the weather.

First, Superstorm Sandy leveled his home and devastated most of his neighborhood in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Now, an arctic blast that forecasters warn can have deadly consequences is gripping the region.

Late Thursday, a gas-powered heater and a tent were the only defense Youssef had against the biting cold as he handed out jackets and sweaters at a makeshift supply depot he established to help his Midland Beach neighbors who, in some cases, are still struggling to get the power back on.

"A lot of people have been coming, so we give them jackets, we give them sweaters," he told CNN affiliate NY1. "Yeah, we are trying. We are trying our best to help them."

But even as he helped his neighbors, he wondered how long he could keep the heater running at the tent where some of his neighbors were seeking shelter. Gas, he said, is expensive.

"In Kentucky, you never know because the weather can change fast. It gets warm and it rains. Then it turns cold, so we can get a lot more ice than snow."

Authorities reported a bus accident on Interstate Highway 65, with a minor injury, and other car accidents Friday in the state's Fayette, Henry and Scott counties.

In Indiana, four Murray State University students were injured when their bus flipped. The bus had been on its way an indoor track meet at Indiana University.

Icy conditions also caused more than 200 wrecks around Charlotte, North Carolina, CNN affiliate WCNC reported. Twenty-two people were injured in those wrecks, it said, including at least two with life-threatening injuries.

National Weather Service forecasters urged caution early Friday as they warned that "bitterly cold conditions" were expected to continue across much of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast into the weekend. They predicted 1 to 4 inches of snow for areas in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions Friday, with the Carolinas and Tennessee Valley getting freezing rain.

By late Friday, winter weather advisories remained in effect for parts of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

The snow was expected to move later in the day into the eastern United States. It was not good news in portions of New York and New Jersey, where homes destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in places such as Staten Island and Far Rockaway, Queens, lacked basic utilities needed to restore heat.

With temperatures plummeting, warming centers were opened in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other areas, according to various emergency management officials.

In Asbury Park, New Jersey, a traditional polar bear club plunge into frigid waters had to be postponed because of the single-digit wind chill.

"It wouldn't be safe to have people out there in their bathing suits," said club spokesman Traudy Grande.

Schools shuttered, planes grounded

Travelers were already feeling the effects of the storm.

Approximately 100 flights were canceled at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Friday.

There were about 20 cancellations at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, according Mindy Hamlin, a spokeswoman.

Emily Richard, a spokeswoman for Nashville International Airport in Tennessee, said all inbound American Airlines flights for Thursday night and Friday morning were canceled.

Dozens of school systems in Tennessee and some in northern Georgia said they would be closed.

Schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, will close early, a spokesman with Wake County schools said.

"We're going to make sure we put a plan in place so that the buses are rolling while it's still safe and the students are back home before weather becomes an issue," he told CNN affiliate WRAL.

The affiliate reported that North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory canceled his Friday evening schedule on account of the icy conditions.

"We do want to encourage people to be very, very careful on what are anticipated to be very slick roads throughout North Carolina," WRAL reported he said. "We don't want to see anyone take any risks."

Caught in the snow

The snow in Pennsylvania played a role in the apprehension of suspected armed robbers, authorities said.

Investigators in Moon Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, tracked the footprints of three people and arrested them in connection with the robbery of a taxi driver at gunpoint Wednesday, police told CNN affiliate KDKA.

The footprints in the fresh snow, according to police, led from the scene of the robbery to the front door of one of the suspects.